Swan Lake for ‘real’ women

You might have seen on television recently the ‘Big Ballet’ series of programmes. I started to watch it at the beginning mainly through curiosity but I have watched every episode so far. I have been interested in the dichotomy between the official ballet world and that of the Big Ballet, the changes that have occurred in the participants and the commitment of the ballet mistress.

The infamous lift from the Big Ballet programme

Although I do enjoy watching ballet, I think my final motivation to watch the programme was because of the changes that was happening with the confidence of the women. It appeared that for once they were being valued and they were achieving something that they had dreamed of doing for a long time. The only thing that had really prevented them from achieving this dream was their shape and size. To see them living their dream fantastic and I must say the part when Hannah was given the lead role and she exclaimed through her tears that she felt like a real princess was priceless.

I often think now, at my age (47) that many of the doors of opportunity have been closed, but perhaps it is myself who has closed these doors rather than society as a whole that I usually blame. We could all wait for the opportunity to be presented to us, like the fairy godmother Wayne Sleep to appear and enroll us in a ballet, or we could take the initiative and create the opportunities ourselves. Maybe then we will all be able to have our own big ballet.